Grand Teton National Park

THE Grand Tetons held sway over me for 20 years -- before I set ever eyes on them. The breathtaking backdrop for a mythic American landscape has been etched on my consciousness since, as a 10-year-old, I sat mesmerized by a Saturday matinee showing of "Shane," an archetypal little-guy-versus-bully story. And the Jackson Hole, Wyo., landscape, personified by the overpowering Tetons, is as essential a character as any in the 1953 film.

A new art show in Washington, D.C., spotlights national park posters from the Depression years, including the frothy falls of Yellowstone, the jagged mountains of Glacier and the native ruins of Bandelier National Monument. Titled “Posterity,” the show at the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum is built around six original posters that date to the Depression years. But it also includes later reproductions and contemporary posters in similar style, covering more than three dozen parks and wildlife refuges.

Rolling through Jackson Hole on the way into Grand Teton National Park for the first time, I spotted a boy on the cycle path alongside the road. His family was a few yards behind him, and the Tetons were off to his left, their ragged, snowy peaks jutting above the Snake River and miles of meadow. The boy was taking it all in, his helmeted head tilted back. His legs were pumping. And his arms were off the handlebars, thrown out in scarecrow fashion. He was the King of the World, astride a shiny bike instead of a doomed ocean liner.

Grand Teton National Park is glorious in the fall, so what better way to appreciate it than with a new lodging-and-tour package that will take visitors to the park's back country in search of wildlife. The Wyoming Inn , near Jackson Hole's town square, and Eco-Tour Adventures have teamed up for this package that includes three nights' lodging and a full-day eco-tour for two, for $389.99 per person, double occupancy. Using four-wheel-drive vehicles, Eco-Tour guides will take guests through Grand Teton National Park to remote back-country habitats to search for moose, elk, black bears, bald eagles and other wildlife.

The bodies of two climbers who apparently fell to their deaths on Grand Teton were recovered with the help of a helicopter, a park official said. "They were roped together," Grand Teton National Park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said. "We still don't know what happened and how it happened." The two dead climbers were identified as Alan Rooney, 38, and Jonathan Morrow, 28.

A series of earthquakes shook the northwest part of the state near Grand Teton National Park, but there were no reports of damage. The strongest quake, at 12:51 a.m., registered a magnitude of 5.0 and was centered about 19 miles east-northeast of Jackson, said John Minsch, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo.

An experienced climber died on Grand Teton National Park's 11,618-foot Disappointment Peak when his rappel anchor failed and he fell 50 feet, officials said. Frank Olding, 40, of Seattle was part of a three-person climbing party that was ascending the peak's East Ridge, park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said. His climbing partners were taken off the mountain by helicopter.

The carp-like Labeo scrape algae off a hippo in the documentary "Mzima: Haunt of the River Horse" set in Kenya. It opened the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival on Monday in Grand Teton National Park, Wyo.What began in 1991 as an obscure magnet for far-flung filmmakers, producers and distributors slowly has gained mainstream exposure. Accepting the 2003 Conservation Action Award on Thursday will be El Hadj Omar Bongo, who created a national parks system in Gabon.

Grand Teton National Park officials say a deadly species of amoeba has been found in waters along the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway between Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park. The Naegleria fowleri organism causes amoebic meningitis and almost always kills humans within 10 days of infection. Officials said the amoeba has been found in Huckleberry Hot Springs and Polecat Creek near Flagg Ranch along the parkway.

Douglas Trimborn, 10, of Thousand Oaks fishes from a picnic table in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park in this photo taken by his father, Bob, in August 2000. What may look like moody mist in the background is actually smoke from forest fires settling over Jackson Lake, Bob says. The Trimborns, including Bob's wife, JoAnne, and daughter, Claire, spent more than two weeks on an RV camping trip in the West. Besides fishing, they went boating, hiked and rode horses.

If you go THE BEST WAY TO JACKSON, WYO., AND GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK From LAX, United offers nonstop service and Delta and United offering connecting (change of planes) service to the Jackson Hole, Wyo., airport. WHERE TO STAY Cowboy Village Resort, 120 S. Flatcreek Drive, Jackson; (307) 733-3121 or 800-483-8667, http://www.townsquareinns.com . Dozens of log cabins with kitchenettes, close together, with indoor pool and grassy playground next door. About six blocks from town square.

Rolling through Jackson Hole on the way into Grand Teton National Park for the first time, I spotted a boy on the cycle path alongside the road. His family was a few yards behind him, and the Tetons were off to his left, their ragged, snowy peaks jutting above the Snake River and miles of meadow. The boy was taking it all in, his helmeted head tilted back. His legs were pumping. And his arms were off the handlebars, thrown out in scarecrow fashion. He was the King of the World, astride a shiny bike instead of a doomed ocean liner.

Clifford P. Hansen, a cattle rancher who became Wyoming's governor and then served two terms as a U.S. senator, has died. He was 97. Hansen died at his home Tuesday after receiving hospital treatment for a broken pelvis. A Republican, he served as governor from 1963 to 1967, when he went to Washington after defeating Teno Roncalio, Wyoming's only congressman and a Democrat, in a bid for the Senate. Hansen sat on the Senate Finance and Veterans Affairs committees and was a ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee.

The sophisticated motion sensors that line a one-mile stretch of highway in western Wyoming seem out of place. There are no pricey jewels, no rare artifacts, just desolate landscape. The equipment is here because every fall and spring, 300 to 450 pronghorn antelope cross the bustling two-lane road on their journey between the snowcapped mountains in Grand Teton National Park and the expansive, sagebrush-covered mesas and hills of southwestern Wyoming. The journey extends about 160 miles; of all the mammals in the Western Hemisphere, only the Arctic caribou migrates farther.

The bodies of two climbers who apparently fell to their deaths on Grand Teton were recovered with the help of a helicopter, a park official said. "They were roped together," Grand Teton National Park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said. "We still don't know what happened and how it happened." The two dead climbers were identified as Alan Rooney, 38, and Jonathan Morrow, 28.

THE Grand Tetons held sway over me for 20 years -- before I set ever eyes on them. The breathtaking backdrop for a mythic American landscape has been etched on my consciousness since, as a 10-year-old, I sat mesmerized by a Saturday matinee showing of "Shane," an archetypal little-guy-versus-bully story. And the Jackson Hole, Wyo., landscape, personified by the overpowering Tetons, is as essential a character as any in the 1953 film.

Grand Teton National Park is glorious in the fall, so what better way to appreciate it than with a new lodging-and-tour package that will take visitors to the park's back country in search of wildlife. The Wyoming Inn , near Jackson Hole's town square, and Eco-Tour Adventures have teamed up for this package that includes three nights' lodging and a full-day eco-tour for two, for $389.99 per person, double occupancy. Using four-wheel-drive vehicles, Eco-Tour guides will take guests through Grand Teton National Park to remote back-country habitats to search for moose, elk, black bears, bald eagles and other wildlife.

When Jeff Olsen first attempted to ride a mountain bike in Grand Canyon National Park in 1990, he was denied access. "It didn't make any sense to me," says the architect and bikeway designer from Sarasota Springs, N.Y. So he pushed for the creation of a 70-mile paved path on the rim -- still under construction -- part of which is open to cyclists. "It's been a very uphill battle with a lot of frustration and institutional obstacles," he says.

A federal judge in Cheyenne struck down a Clinton-era ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer ruled that the ban -- aimed at preventing air and noise pollution and protecting wildlife -- was imposed without adequate public participation. The 2001 rule was "the product of a prejudged, political decision to ban snowmobiles from all the national parks," Brimmer said.